Rebound
by Skoozyy
Summary: With Tohru and Yuki gone, Machi and Momiji grow closer. Momiji/Machi/Yuki triangle.
1. Chapter 1

**I love Machi and Momiji together, I only wish they'd got some time together in the manga. I wrote a one-shot including them both in my Machi/Yuki fic, and was inspired to spawn this from it. (it's not actually in any way related to that one-shot, though...) I'm not entirely sure in what way this is heading (I'm not only of those immensely well organized writers who has it all written up before it's posted), but I just think a Momiji/Machi/Yuki triangle will be fun to write. I hope you enjoy! Reviews are loved like Momiji's exceptionally huggably cute bunny form.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Fruits Basket. I just own the plot bunny. (Not the Momiji bunny, unfortunately)**

Nobody enjoys the first day back at school after the lazy, long, sunny days of the summer break. For Machi, she had been dreading the day more than she had done any year before. For this, the first day of the new school year, her first year as a high school senior, she could honestly look back on the weeks that had passed and say she had enjoyed herself, more than she could ever remember enjoying herself before. This was why she was sat at her desk, staring idly out of the window, not taking in a word the teacher at the front of the class was saying.

Her mind was filled with what this, this start meant. It meant the summer was over. It meant that those hot days, those sweet, cherished days were over. No more eating ice-cream by the duck pond, talking with Yuki of things that seemed too deep for their surroundings. No more picnics with Yuki under that old oak tree at the back of her apartment block. No more playful hugs and tentative kisses under the humid blanket of the starry nights. It was over.

Yuki had left only a couple of days earlier. She hadn't cried. It would have made no sense to. The college Yuki had been accepted at was prestigious. It was the sort of place more doting parents would give their left arm for their kids to go to. It would open up all sorts of possibilities for him later in life. Once he graduated, no doubt with honours, the world would be his oyster. It was what was right for him, and so she couldn't possibly taint something like that with ridiculous tears. Even when she was alone, in her messy apartment, she wouldn't succumb. Instead, she tried to adjust herself to the gnawing sensation she got in her chest when she thought of him, thought of how she'd felt when he was around, when he was with her, over anyone else in the entire world.

So no, she hadn't shed a tear. She'd just missed him.

"Kuragi-san?" A deep male voice interrupted her thoughts. She looked up to find her Maths sensei staring at her from across the classroom. She was surprised to see there were few pupils left in the room. Just her, the blonde boy who seemed to sit in front of her for every class, and a couple of girls who were slowly making their way out of the door, reminiscing with sighs of their summer loves.

"Unless you plan on staying here the whole of lunch break, you'd better go." He said, "And go and get some fresh air outside. Clear your head. Summer break is over, no more wasting time daydreaming. Your last year of high school is going to be work work work."

She nodded silently, picking up her bag, a slight colour on her cheeks from being caught so obviously in the middle of a daydream. He was right, of course, she thought as she made her way out of the classroom and down the corridor. She had to work hard to get top grades this year. She'd told Yuki she's catch him up. There was no way she'd get into the same university if she didn't do well in her exams. Maybe Sensei had been right, maybe she should go get some fresh air. She didn't have any other plans for lunch. Last year, she'd got into the routine of going and doing council work during break times. Often, she would be joined by Naohito, Yuki, and occasionally Kakeru. Although she didn't speak much, the company was an unexpected pleasure to her.

Yuki, Kakeru and Kimi had all graduated now, though. It had been decided that both herself and Naohito were doing a satisfactory job, and so were allowed to keep their positions. At the end of the previous year, the headmaster had started taking applications once again to fill the spaces. Apparently she and Naohito would be meeting their new 'colleagues' for the first time that coming Friday. The thought did not excite much of a reaction in her. She had been unenthusiastic when given her role as treasurer at the beginning of the previous year, and had returned to this state now. Whoever the trio's replacements were, it just couldn't ever be the same.

"Maaaachi!" A boy's voice called out from behind her, "Hey, Machi-san! Wait up!" She turned on the spot, slightly shocked to once again be dragged back into the present.

"Machi-san." The boy said triumphantly, catching up to her, a sunny smile on his face. It was the boy who sat in front of her, with the pale blonde hair. Momiji. A relative of Yuki's. He'd grown a great deal since the beginning of last year, she noted. He had a good few inches on her, and had finally started wearing the boys' uniform. His face, too, was different. It'd lost some of its round softness. Less childish, more like a man's. He still had the same pink rabbit backpack on his shoulders, though. She'd always thought it was absolutely adorable.

"Um, hello, Sohma-san." She bowed slightly, and he laughed.

"Don't call me that! If you let me call you Machi, you can call me Momiji, okay?"

She was slightly shocked by his forwardness, and didn't know how to respond. She hadn't really spoken to him in the past, but had always got the impression that he was very different to Yuki.

"Okay." She said quietly after a moment.

"Great!" He said enthusiastically. "So you're Yuki's girlfriend, right?"

She nodded, once, slowly, wondering how he kept up the aura of constant happiness she had never seen slide.

"Guess you must miss him a lot, huh?"

A jolt went through her. So quickly he had got onto a personal topic. She was quickly coming to resent his forward nature.

"It's okay, though," He continued, although she hadn't replied, "I know how it feels. There's someone who I miss a lot, too. Every day, you know?" He laughed, "She's not been gone long, and she's with the person she loves most in the world, so I know she's very happy, so I have to be happy for her too."

If he hadn't called her 'Machi' when running down the corridor after her, she would have thought he was talking to the wrong person, and just hadn't noticed. He was speaking as if she was one of his closest friends and confidantes.

He seemed lost in himself for a moment or so, and Machi wondered how he would take it if she just moved away, back to her original plan of going to sit out in the school grounds. Before she could move, however, he came round.

"It's too nice a day to spend it inside." He declared out of the blue, "Let's have lunch together outside, okay?"

Without waiting for an answer, he took her hand in his own, a movement which instantly made Machi want to pull her arm away, and retreat from the strange and uncomfortably over-familiar boy. He had a firm grasp on her, keeping her there without hurting her.

People stared at them as they passed, Momiji leading, Machi in tow, their hands connecting them together. She heard many not-so-hushed whispers as they passed, of things such as: 'Wasn't one Sohma good enough for HER?', 'Do you think she's going to test-run all of the Sohma boys?', and 'What a user.' Her face burned. Usually, these people wouldn't notice her. They would have no idea who she was. Only when she was with Yuki did she have any identity to them. She didn't even know how they knew about her relationship with their 'Prince'.

Machi was dragged over to a bench on the far side of the grounds, situated on a large patch of muddy turf which was turned over from having rough sports played on it every day.

"Let's sit here." Momiji decided, almost bouncing himself onto the metal bench, and pulling Machi beside him. As Momiji dived into his pink rabbit rucksack, pulling out a yellow plastic lunchbox, which, to her slight envy, had Mogeta on the front, she felt the need to speak up.

"Why are you… why did you bring me here?" She asked.

"Huh?" He looked up at her, "Because I wanted to have lunch with you, of course!" He laughed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I feel kinda lost now that Tohru's gone, so I guessed you might feel the same about Yuki not being here anymore."

Tohru? The name rang a bell in her head. Wasn't that… Honda-san? As far as she knew, Honda-san had started dating the orange-haired Sohma boy at the end of the previous year. Not one to listen to gossip, she hadn't know there was something between Momiji-kun and Honda-san, too.

"I figured, if we were both feeling lost, then the most sensible thing would be to find each other, right? So I think we should be friends from here on out."

She glanced over his eager face. He spoke with upmost sincerity, he genuinely did look like he wanted to make friends with her. She found how friendly he was slightly unsettling, but he had a point. If both of them didn't really have anyone to spend lunch break with, despite the fact she was sure he was very popular in her class, why shouldn't they just simply eat together?

"Okay." Machi said, slowly. She opened her own backpack, and rooted around for her plain, plastic, red lunchbox. It wasn't there. As she thought about it, she wasn't sure she could even recall making herself lunch that morning.

"Did you forget your lunch?" Momiji asked.

"Yeah." She nodded, leaning back against the back of the bench. She didn't even have any money with her to buy anything from the school canteen.

"Here." He held out his own lunchbox. It contained only white rice and several perfectly formed sushi rolls. "We'll share."

"What? No, I couldn't." Machi said immediately.

"Of course you could. Friends share, don't they? Anyway, all the sushi's got tuna in it. I keep telling my maid I don't like tuna, but she says it's good for growing boys." He rolled his eyes.

She was going to reject his offer again, claiming she wasn't hungry, when her stomach growled audibly.

He laughed. "See? You should eat." He thrust the box closer to her, and handed her the pair of disposable chopsticks he had just unwrapped. She took them cautiously, then hesitated.

"How are you going to eat?" As far as she could see, the only pair of chopsticks he had were the ones she was holding.

He grinned. "I'm always prepared." He dove into his bag again, and this time brought out a spoon, baby pink in colour.

"My ice cream spoon." He announced. Before she got a chance to ask, he filled her in. "So I can eat ice cream neatly. It means I don't have to wash my face afterwards, so I can eat it whenever, wherever!"

"Oh." She felt something that tickled like a laugh rising up inside her, but she suppressed it. "So… you're going to eat rice with a spoon?"

"Uh huh." Momiji nodded, scooping up some of the grains onto his spoon with enthusiasm.

"And you're sure… this is okay?" She indicated to the chopsticks in her own hand, then to his sushi. Momiji laughed through a mouthful of rice.

"I can see why Yuki likes you so much." He said, once he had swallowed. "You're really cute."

Blushing, and to stop herself being obliged to form a reply, she picked up a piece of sushi with her chopsticks, and placed it in her mouth, making any more talking impossible.

The rest of the lunch break passed in much the same way, the bento was finished by the both of them, and Machi thanked the cheerful boy sincerely, reminding herself to definitely pack her lunch tomorrow. Momiji managed to talk almost the entire time, with very little prompting from Machi's side. It was quite relieving that he didn't demand long speeches from her, a couple of words here and there were enough to keep him chatting amiably.

The bell rang, heralding the end of the break.

"Oh, good, we've got Biology next!" He said with real enthusiasm. He jumped off the bench, then held out his hand to pull Machi up. She would have preferred to get off the bench unaided, but after the kindness he had been showing her all lunch break, she could hardly be rude now. He took her hand once again.

"That was really fun." Momiji said, smiling happily as they walked, hand in awkward hand, to the Science lab. "Hey, hey!" He said, "I've got an idea. Tomorrow, I'll show you the best place to have lunch here. Not many people know about it, so it's kind of a secret, but you'll like it too, I'm sure." He said.

"We're having lunch together… tomorrow?"

"Oh!" Momiji said loudly, "Es tut mir leid, Machi. I should have asked. Do you want to have lunch with me again tomorrow? I'd really like it if you said 'yes'." He looked down at her from his slight height advantage. His eyes were still slightly large for his face, but maybe that was something he wouldn't grow out of. They sparkled with an almost irresistible sincerity and innocence.

"Okay." She agreed. It was better than eating alone, like she had had to do before joining the council.

"Great!" He said, pulling her along with him into the lab, and towards their desks. "And, hey! I just remembered. You're on the student council, right?"

She nodded.

"Well, I applied for that last year! Maybe, if I get in, we will get to work together too!" He grinned broadly at the thought.

"Momiji." A voice said from behind the two of them. Machi turned, and was confronted with a tall boy standing dangerously close to her. Her eyes were level with the bundle of silver necklaces of different lengths slung around his neck.

"Haru!" Momiji said. "I thought you were skipping the first day back. Didn't you want to wait until Rin was back at college before you came back?"

He looked at Momiji with a far off gaze. "Rin said something about me getting under her feet… strange girl." He said, looking down at Machi for the first time. She immediately wondered whether he was referring to this 'Rin' person, or herself.

"This is Machi!" Momiji said, his hand still holding hers.

"Machi…" Haru pondered the name, "Yuki's girlfriend?"

"Yeah! We just got back from having lunch together."

Haru nodded, and, without saying a word, made his way to his desk on the other side of the room.

"He seems a bit out of it, sometimes." Momiji said, and Machi turned back to face him. "But really, he's very nice. I think you two will be friends, too."

"Sohma-san, Kuragi-san," Sensei entered the room, tanned from a summer of sunbathing by the looks of it, "Please take your seats."

They did as instructed, only then did Momiji let go of her hand. It was tingling slightly from the unfamiliar contact.

As the teacher started the lesson, Machi found her mind wandering once again, this time to the strange boy in front of her. She replayed the events of the lunch break over and over in her heading, before sighing quietly in resignation. It didn't matter how much she analysed it. She still had no idea what had just happened.

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	2. Chapter 2

**I was struggling with this fic, and then had a sudden burst of inspiration, and ended up with this. It's much longer than I'd anticipated XD I've got two notes to make clear on this part:**

**1. I don't know how student councils work. Do you vote people in, or do people just get chosen because of good behaviour and grades and the like? My school doesn't have one, and if it did, I can't imagine I'd get involved in it, so I don't know these things XD**

**2. I really show my British-ness in this chapter. Headmasters. Prefects (is that a really English thing, or do other countries have prefects in schools, too? I have no idea...) I don't know why, but in this chapter there's loads of British-isms like that. I hope it doesn't make it clunky and irritating to read XP**

**With that, those of you reading this are fabulous people. Spread the Momiji/Machi love!**

**DISCLAIMER: I'm no Natsuki Takaya :(**

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**Chapter 2**

The first week back at school after summer passed blandly, the days running into each other, time blurring slightly around the edges. Machi got up, went to school, had morning lessons, had lunch with Momiji, and occasionally Haru too, then she'd have afternoon lessons, go home, and sleep. Her life had fallen back into a raw, familiar pace. If not for the caring and cheerful phone calls most evenings, it would be as if Yuki had never touched her life.

There was a knock at the classroom door as Sensei was in full flow about trigonometry. His annoyance was easily visible as he almost growled: 'Come in'.

"Ah, excuse me, Sensei." It was a slight young woman Machi thought looked familiar. It seemed likely that she worked in the office, or something of that nature.

"Do you have a Kuragi-san in your class?"

Machi's heart jumped slightly. She'd never been pulled out of class before.

"Yes." Sensei said, indicating his hand in a wave in Machi's direction. "What do you need from her?"

"Oh," The lady blushed, embarrassed, at the annoyance she was causing, "The headmaster wants to see her."

Machi's heart really was beating faster. Never, in her entire school career, had she done something that would result in being sent to the headmaster's office. Even when she had chucked boxes of chalk all over the floor, and scribbled on perfectly clean whiteboards, it had not been enough to warrant a severe telling off.

"Ah, don't worry, Kuragi-san!" The woman said, as Machi made her way over from her desk, "You're not in trouble!"

"Well? If that's all?" Sensei said impatiently, eager to get on with his lesson.

"I almost forgot!" She said, "The headmaster asked for Sohma-san, too!"

Both Hatsuharu and Momiji looked up.

"Which one?" Sensei growled.

"M-m-momiji, I think he said."

Momiji almost literally bounced over, knocking his chair back into the desk Machi had been sitting at seconds before in his eagerness.

"T-thank you, Sensei." The young woman mumbled as she lead the pair out of the room, and towards the headmaster's office.

"What's going on?" Momiji enquired cheerfully.

"I wouldn't know, Sohma-san." She seemed a lot more relaxed away from the slightly intimidating Maths sensei. "The headmaster just asked me to come and get you both. I don't think you're in trouble though. He sounded pleased, not angry."

"Great!" Momiji said. "Hey, Machi, what do you think it's about?"

"…I don't know." It certainly seemed odd. She could see no reason why the headmaster would call both her and Momiji.

"Here we are." The woman said after only a couple of minutes. "You can go right in. He's been waiting for you." With that, she left them, scurrying off busily to her next duty, whatever that was.

Momiji lunged towards Machi suddenly, grabbing her hand.

"Are you nervous?" She'd been hoping that it wasn't showing. She gave a slight nod.

"Don't worry. We're in this together, whatever it is." He grinned at her warmly. He definitely didn't seem worried.

Momiji, letting go of her hand, turned the knob, and they entered the office.

The headmaster was sat behind his desk, glasses propped on his nose. He was not alone, however. A couple of students Machi did not recognize were already assembled, alongside, to her great relief and sudden understanding, Naohito, scowling, as usual. It was obvious from there what this sudden meeting was going to be about. Why hadn't she thought of it before?

"Ah, good, Kuragi-san, Momiji-san. Our party is complete." He looked genuinely pleased.

"I'd like to congratulate you all," The headteacher said, standing from behind his desk, "You are this year's student council."

"Really?!" Momiji said, his eyes wide, rivalled only by the wide grin on his face, "Me? Really?"

He sounded utterly delighted. None of the other students made any attempt to match his enthusiasm. Maybe it had occurred to the new members, as both Machi and Naohito knew all too well, that student council wasn't prestigious, it just meant more work.

"I got in!" Momiji did a small victory air punch, riding on his apparent success. "Hi-five!" He squealed, holding out his hand. Nobody made any movement to meet his hand, and it was only when he turned squarely on her with friendly eyes that Machi tapped her own palm lightly against his. Before she had a chance to let her arm fall meekly back to her side, he encased the hand in his own.

"Now we're colleagues!"

"Yes, as I said, congratulations," The headmaster had obviously never seen such pure euphoria at being granted a position on the student council. "Now, of course, you'll have many responsibilities in your new positions, but I'm sure you're all more than ca-"

"Excuse me, but what actually ARE our positions?" Naohito demanded.

"Oh, yes, I haven't told you yet. Let me see…" He rifled in a drawer of his desk for a moment. The room waited in silence, save for the sound of fabric rubbing on fabric as Momiji swung his and Machi's connected hands happily.

"Ah, here we are." He pulled out a small white lined card, "Mizutani-san and Sohma-san, you're both to be secretaries."

"Secretary." Momiji said with awe, as if he had just been told he was to become the next Prime Minister of Japan.

"Kuragi-san, you're to resume your position as Treasurer, Ikezawa-san, you're to be the Vice President, and Sakuragi-san, you're the new President of the council." Naohito almost, _almost _smiled.

So she was Treasurer again. She hadn't been expecting anything more. It just further confirmed that her life had returned to the pre-Yuki status quo. Which was fine. She could deal with the status quo, couldn't she? The only real difference would be the presence of the perpetually cheerful blonde boy standing at her side, his hand cradling hers with happy swings.

"Well, I'm glad we got that all sorted…" The headmaster said, straightening his tie, "You should have your first meeting after school today, so you can arrange your timetables, but other than that, I haven't got anything else to say, unless any of you have any questions?" He asked the room at large. When nobody responded, he concluded the meeting. "Well then, you should be getting back to class. It won't do for the council to interfere with your studies. Good luck, all of you."

They were all dismissed from the office, the two new girls went off down the corridor together, chatting in hushed voices between each other. Naohito stalked ahead, a new spring in his step, and sense of superiority in his air. Only Momiji stayed with her.

"Wow, this is going to be great, right, Machi?" He said happily, "I really didn't think I'd get in. When I applied to be a prefect last year, they told me I was 'too loud and childish'." He smiled at the memory, as if it had been a compliment.

"Well… I guess you've grown since then." Machi said quietly, taking the lead in walking them back to class. It was indisputably true that he had _grown. _Physically, he had gained almost a foot, and he'd filled out in his chest and limbs, making him more of a man-like figure, a far cry from the androgynous little boy he had been the previous year. His features had hardened, although they retained the kind warmth, and the shape of his face was more masculine, having lost the child-like roundness. His skin still looked Cherubic in its softness, however.

Altogether, physically, Momiji was a man. His personality, however, seemed to have him stuck eternally at hyperactive child. Whoever had dictated that Momiji was now ready to take up a position in the school council obviously had judged his outward appearances, and thought it to represent thorough and complete growth of all of him.

"Yeah… Do you think I'll make a good secretary, Machi?" He asked thoughtfully.

"Mmm." She replied. He couldn't be any worse, or more annoying, than Kimi.

"I guess it'll be a bit weird for you, at first, though." He said, continuing in his thoughtful tone, "You must have been used to the old council, with Yuki as president."

"Mmm." She said again, refusing to give any more. She would not be speaking with him about her ridiculous nostalgia for what had been only the year before.

"It'll be a lot of fun this year, too, though. I know you'll be missing Yuki, but-" She didn't wait to hear what he had left to say. She quickened her step so she was no longer in line with him. What was happening to her? She was cold. Emotionless. Her mother always berated her for it. Why were her eyes growing hot? Why did it feel like there was an iron fist clasping around her windpipe and restricting her air-flow? She hadn't let these… _feelings _overcome her, not since Yuki had left for his new beginning at university. How could she let herself get so out of control now? There was no way she could let Momiji see this.

"Machi?" He sounded utterly surprised behind her. All she had to do was reach class, and sit through without listening, giving her a chance to compose herself. It would be fine. She'd just have to try harder in future to not let herself get so out of hand.

"Machi?" He was walking faster now, too, on the verge of a jog. "Did I upset you? I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to. What did I say? Tell me what I said, then I can be sure not to do it again. Machi?" He was at her side again, and, without warning, he reached out a warm hand, touching it against her bare forearm, a request for her to slow down. It worked. She froze stock still at the sudden contact.

"Machi?" His face was close to hers, he was bending slightly so he could peer at her face from under her hair, which had fallen in a curtain as she hung her head, trying to hide the burning tears that escaped from their captivity, running loose on her flaming cheeks.

"Machi, Machi, please tell me what I said. Please."

She shook her head, still not raising it, "It's… nothing." Her voice was muffled, "We need to get to class." If she kept her head down as she sat in class, nobody would notice the tear streaks. They would never look that closely.

"No. No, you shouldn't go to class if you're upset." He took her hand up in his own, on affirming that she wasn't angry or upset with him. "I know where we should go."

He tugged gently, and she felt herself following, despite knowing that she should just ignore him and head back to class, as the headmaster had asked them to do.

"I go there sometimes when I need some time by myself. It was Tohru that first showed me the place, but she didn't go there a lot. She didn't really get upset a lot, I guess. She's always happy and smiling." His eyes were misted over slightly at the memory, and Machi was sure that he wished it was someone else's hand he was holding.

"I'm fine, really." Machi said, sniffing in an attempt to reel back the tears that were free-flowing down her face. Momiji ignored her protests, and took her into a small classroom that she had never been in before. Judging by the numerous globes and maps on the walls, it had formerly been a Geography classroom.

"Nobody uses this room anymore." He informed her, "It gets too cold in winter, so pretty much only me and Haru ever come here now."

"Oh." Machi replied, as Momiji pushed her into a sitting position on one of the old rickety chairs. He sat on the desk in front of it, his legs now long enough to touch the ground securely.

"Haru sometimes uses this room to have a quick smoke, though." Momiji continued, releasing Machi's hand so she could wipe her cheek with the back of it. He fished into the pocket of his black school trousers and pulled out a scrunched up tissue decorated with cheerful pink and yellow flowers. He handed it to her.

"So if you ever come in here and it's all smoky, you might want to open the windows, or something. It's not good to inhale it."

"Right." She nodded obediently, not really listening to his chatter. She was beyond embarrassed to be here, alone with Momiji Sohma, with her face a mess from tears over a boy who had done nothing but moved a few hours away. People moved away, moved on, all the time. What was wrong with her, why was she crying for the boy who she liked above all others getting an opportunity at a college that would be securing his happiness for the future? Had she always been so selfish?

Momiji must have stopped speaking at some point, and she hadn't noticed, because when she looked up, looking around for a bin to put the used tissue in, Momiji was no longer looking at her, his mouth still for once. He was gazing out of the window, out of which there was a view of almost the entire playing field. Her eyes followed his gaze, but he didn't seem to really be focusing on the few students hanging out on the grass of the field, also skipping class.

"Is it Yuki you're upset about?" He asked, still not turning to her. She, too, continued looking out on the field. It felt less direct if there was no eye contact involved. She weighed up her options. Was it worth pretending to not be bothered about Yuki's departure? If she claimed that wasn't why she had got upset, then she would have to fabricate something else. She didn't want to lie to Momiji. He was such an inherently honest person. He bared his heart open for all to see. He let anyone in, let anyone see the real him. Someone like him didn't deserve to have her own imperfections impressed upon him.

"A bit." She conceded after a moments silence.

"It's okay, you know." He said. She could feel his eyes were on her again now, but she refused to meet the gaze. It was easier this way. Almost like soliloquizing to herself. "It's okay to miss him. You should just let yourself. I know what it's like. You feel guilty, because you know that it's like wishing their new life away from them, wanting them to be stuck with you forever, like taking wings from a bird. But still… it hurts more to hold it in and pretend it's okay. It's okay to cry."

She wanted to cry. She felt uncomfortable at how far he understood. Was this girl, this Tohru, to him what Yuki was to her? Only… it wasn't the same. In a year, she was going to apply to a university close to the one where Yuki was attending. With her grades, it was almost a sure thing that she'd get in. On her first visit to his new home, months from now, he promised that he would show her around the apartment. Neither had been brave enough to say it formally, but it was an unspoken certainty that it was in preparation for her to move in with him when she started university.

Machi didn't know the full details of this Tohru girl, beyond what she had heard through the school grapevine. She had, apparently, on returning from hospital, got together with the orange-haired Sohma. As far as she could decipher, people didn't think it would be too many years before wedding bells began to ring. If this was true, Momiji would never have her. He had given her away to the orange-haired boy, because he had known that was what would make her happy. He lived in the knowledge that if she had to choose one person in the world that she could not live without, it would not be him.

How could he be brave enough to be the one consoling her now?

She could fill her eyes spilling over once again, this time, for both of them. In a year, she'd be with Yuki, they'd spend their days together, their nights together. Their hearts would be free to reach each other. Momiji would never have that with Tohru. He was beyond selfless to be seeing past his own pain, blinking back his own tears, to help her through hers.

"Momiji-kun …" She began tentatively. He looked surprised. Had she ever addressed him so directly before?

"Momiji-kun… I'm sorry. I'm… really sorry." She wasn't sure in her own mind which part she was apologizing for, her tears, or his hidden ones. Luckily, he didn't ask for an explanation. He gave her a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. She didn't know him well, but she could easily tell who he was thinking about. The person who probably traversed his thoughts each and every day. The one he could never have.

"It's… okay to cry." She said, her own words tripping over themselves. Such assurances, when said from her own lips, sounded foreign.

He gave a choked half laugh. He turned his head slightly, as if his laughter was continuing, but there was no sound for several moments, until a strangled sob broke the silence. She ever so tentatively reached out a hand, making contact with his forearm with a fairy-like touch. He had every right to cry, far more right than she did, but she didn't know how to express such a sentiment in words. She hoped the rare physical contact initiated by her would get her message across.

He turned back to her, and her own heart gave a very uncomfortable tug. Every line, every crease, every pore of his face seeped pain, a silent suffering, a weight he had been bearing. The tears, making his cheeks blotchy, seemed nothing compared to the look of loss that was so plain in his eyes.

Had he told anyone else how he felt? How much he'd been hurting? How could they not have noticed? From what Yuki had told her, she could tell that the Sohmas were an enormous family. Surely a relative… his mother and father, surely someone had seen the pain in him, disguised behind his cheerful façade?

"Uh." Momiji said, smiling falsely, the tears still unstopped on both of their faces. "We're a hopeless pair, right?" He joked. She wished she could have his unending supply of optimistic jokiness.

"Mmm." She agreed, wiping her eyes again with the now almost falling apart tissue that Momiji had given her. Maybe he should have saved it for himself.

"At least we're not alone. We're in this together." He sighed. His breathing was slightly calmer than the initial erratic pace. He leaned in towards her, until their foreheads touched. Both of them were boiling hot. In any other situation, Machi would have pulled away in an instant, but something bound her there. He was looking for nothing more than comfort, nothing more than the security of someone by his side while he cried. If she was honest with herself, the closeness, the feeling of for once, in a long while, not being entirely alone and stranded, was not unwelcome.

He was right. They were in the same situation. In it together. It was that that bound them, gave reason and justification for them to be together like this. And that had to be worth something.


	3. Chapter 3

**Slightly filler chapter, but I just wanted Machi to meet some Sohmas XD Thanks to everyone reading this, and reviews are loved like... something loveable (idea shortage). I wrote this chapter in one sitting, which is slightly remarkable for me. I hope it doesn't seem rushed because of that. Hope you like it, guys!**

**DISCLAIMER: I own... wait... nope... I take that back, I don't own Fruits Basket after all. Darn.**

* * *

The student council was very different from the year before. It was now far more like the teachers all hoped that a body representing the students of the school would be. It was efficient, serious, and not nearly as _loud _as it had been the previous year. Momiji was the only member who could be described as anything less than stoic, and even that was kept at bay as he had nobody to bounce his natural sense of fun off of. Even so, he seemed to enjoy himself. He was always the first to arrive in the meeting room after school finished for the day, and wouldn't even think about leaving before everyone else did. This gave him the opportunity to ask if Machi would like him to walk her home almost every day, and every single time she declined. It wasn't like anything bad would befall her in the twenty minutes it took her to walk home, after all. She could survive in the world without a knight in shining armour by her side, just as she had done a couple of years before.

"Hey, Machi?" Momiji called after her, as she set off down the corridor after an unusually short meeting. "Machi, wait up!" She stopped, and he ran to catch up with her. He skidded to a halt directly in front of her, smiling broadly.

"It's okay." She said immediately, guessing what he was going to say. "I can make my own way home. I don't want you to go out of your way."

He shook his head at this.

"No, it's not that, I wanted to invite you out!" He announced in a loud voice. A couple of straggling female students looked over at this, slightly appalled expressions on their faces. They quickly turned to whisper amongst themselves. Machi caught her name a few times, alongside Yuki's, and some rather disgusted hisses. She really did wish that Momiji would stop doing things that would fuel rumours that she and him had some kind of… relationship.

"Invite me out?" She asked, "I'm sorry, I-" She started immediately, but he held up a hand to silence her.

"Please say you'll come." He said. She really wished his eyes weren't so big, buttery and… slightly adorable. She shook her head, both to rid herself of the thoughts and to express a negative answer.

"I already told Haru that you would."

"Hatsuharu-san?" She asked immediately. "Others are coming?"

He nodded enthusiastically.

"A whole _bucketful _of Sohmas are coming." He said, "And they definitely want to meet you. I mean, you're Yuki's girlfriend, so you're basically one of the family."

She was going to reject the request again. It seemed a rather scary prospect to meet the family when Yuki wasn't even present, and especially a family that was as, if the members she'd already met were anything to go by, unusual as the Sohmas. It was only when she remembered what her single engagement for that evening was going to be that her decision shifted. Her mother was going to call. It was a Thursday, and her mother always called on Thursday for the weekly dutiful inquisition into her daughter's rather drab life. Machi couldn't remember the last occasion she had come off the phone after a chat with her mother, without feeling hate filled and even more damaged emotionally than when she had picked up the damn receiver. However, if she was genuinely out, not only would she getting out of having to speak to her mother for a whole extra week, she would also be able to appease her the next time they spoke by explaining that she had been engaged with a social activity with people the same age as herself from school.

Machi nodded slowly.

"Okay." She agreed.

"Great!" Momiji grabbed her hand, and she had no choice but to follow him.

"I said to the others to wait for us at the park. You know the one? Just around the corner from the school." He led her there, while she made sure to stay two steps behind him at all times, to try and reduce the 'couple' image that she was sure was being projected to the world around them.

It only took a couple of minutes to reach the meeting point at the park. It seemed Momiji's 'bucketfuls' had been an exaggeration. Only four people waited for them there, Hatsuharu included. His was the only face she recognized.

The other three were introduced as Rin, Hiro and Kisa, all Sohmas.

It also seemed to have been a lie that these people would have any eagerness to meet her. On being introduced, only the young girl, Kisa, even spared her a smile, albeit a rather shy one. Hiro looked irritated, as if she were taking up his valuable time, and the tall girl, Rin, seemed to be in a state of permanent anger. However, by the way she was clutching, almost protectively, onto Hatsuharu's hand, it seemed that they had some kind of relationship.

"Is this everyone that's coming?" Hiro asked, his arms crossed over his chest. On receiving an affirmative answer, he gave a snort. "Gosh, this is going to be a _blast._"

"Where is it you decided on in the end, Momiji?" Hatsuharu asked, tapping Hiro lightly on the back of the head, and rendering him silent.

"I thought maybe we could go to that haunted house again!" Momiji said, clapping his hands together, "Remember, Haru, the one we went to with Tohru that one time?"

He nodded his reserved approval.

"The one where they called our parents af-"

"After you broke that mannequin, yeah, that's the one!" Momiji said. He appeared pleased that Hatsuharu remembered the bizarre sounding incident.

"You broke something there the last time you went?" Rin said, with a softness Machi wouldn't have guessed she was capable of. Maybe it was only ever directed at Hatsuharu.

"I don't see it so much as breaking," Hatsuharu said with a thoughtful gaze, "As reuniting a broken family."

Momiji nodded. "It was very heart-warming." He agreed.

"What _are _you talking about? If this is just some insane place, you can count me and Kisa out. We don't want to get involved in your stupidity." This was directed at Momiji. Apparently, he wouldn't throw words like that at Hatsuharu.

"Do you want to go, Machi?" Momiji asked, turning to her. She was slightly surprised at being addressed again, as she had been falling into her usual role of blending in with the wallpaper, and just observing the action going on in front of her.

"I… don't mind."

"Great! Let's go!"

There was slight grumblings from Hiro, but he seemed pacified when Kisa whispered something to him. He also blushed red, although she didn't seem to notice this.

***

Twenty minutes later, and the party stood in the entrance of a rather oddly placed haunted mansion. Machi had only ever seen them before at carnivals and fairs, never in the middle of a department store. It also didn't look to be the most frightening she had ever seen, with slightly-too-obviously plastic skeletons marking the wooden entrance.

"Ah… um… Kuragi-san?" A small voice said from beside her. Kisa stood by her, her head only reaching up to about Machi's collarbone. The two of them had been left behind slightly as they others had gone headfirst into the dark corridors and rooms.

"Yes?" Machi asked, trying to not sound sharp, as she was aware she sometimes did. This girl appeared incredibly delicate. If someone spoke to her in too harsh a tone, she might break apart all together. It wasn't hard to keep harshness out of her voice around the girl though, she was by far the most pleasant company of the three Sohmas she had become acquainted with that day.

"Uh… that is… do you like haunted houses, Kuragi-san?"

Machi shook her head.

"I've never been to one before. I don't really know."

"Oh," Kisa seemed relieved at this, "Neither have I. I wanted to say something to the others, but… they were all so excited, I didn't want to spoil anything for anyone, and I don't know that… I won't like it."

"Let's… stay close, then." Machi suggested. "Then they don't have to know." She wasn't sure in the lack of light, but she thought Kisa smiled at her at this suggestion. If there was one Sohma that Machi was going to get on with and like outside of Yuki and Momiji, then she was fairly definite it was going to be the pretty and shy young girl beside her.

"Yes." Kisa nodded.

They stepped together into the house, immediately to be greeted with a pale mannequin with grotesque features and scars, springing out at them from behind a couple of chiselled rocks. Both she and Kisa jumped, moving closer to together. This continued as they made their way through the rather confusing maze of corridors. They didn't manage to find the others within all the time they were inside the dark and dank place. By the time they reached the light, at least half an hour after they had entered, Kisa was clutching Machi's arm, and was a few shades paler that when she had gone in. Machi was more composed. There was nothing in there that had done any more than unnerved her slightly. Back in her own apartment, the lights were off a great deal of the time in the evenings to save on electricity bills, unless she needed to study, so bumps in the dark didn't frighten her. If anything, as she stepped, blinking, into the light of the real world once again, she wondered what made haunted houses so popular. Personally, she couldn't see the attraction.

"Ah, you found your way out!" Momiji said, bounding over.

"Kisa, where have you been?" Hiro came over, frowning, "I looked for you in there, but I couldn't find you. I thought you'd got scared and left or something." He looked slightly pale too.

"I'm sorry, but I was okay." Kisa said, her voice shaking, contradicting her words, "I had Kuragi-san with me, so I was fine."

Machi felt a slight warmth settle over her at this. It was rare for someone to act like they needed her, and that things would have been worse if she hadn't been there. She quite liked the feeling.

"Did you have fun?" Momiji asked. He seemed to be looking more at Machi than at Kisa. She felt obliged to nod.

"It was fun." She said, although she certainly didn't sound enthusiastic, even to her own ears.

"Oh. You two are okay." Hatsuharu appeared out of nowhere, with Rin by his side, still holding on to his hand, as if they were somehow melded together. "We were starting to worry you might have died in there. That can happen, if you get too scared, your heart can pump too fast, and eventually it'll just-"

"We're fine!" Kisa said hurriedly, and uncharacteristically loudly. She looked like she felt slightly sick as it was, without any descriptions of exploding internal organs.

"Hmm." Hatsuharu shrugged. "Kuragi-san's very different from Tohru, isn't she?" He said to Momiji suddenly, as if she would not be able to hear him just because he willed it so. Or maybe he didn't care.

"Huh?" Momiji turned to him, surprise in his features, "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, think how freaked out Tohru got when she came here. She was sweating by the time she got out. Look at Kuragi, she's still as cool as sokisoba."

"It's sobamaki." Rin said, rolling her eyes.

"What is?"

"She's as cool as sobamaki. Sokisoba is hot, sobamaki's the cool one."

"Hmm." Hatsuharu said again, "Let's go get something to eat."

She rolled her eyes again, but there seemed to be a small smile playing on her lips.

"You can cook for me at your place if you like." She said in a soft voice, apparently similar to her boyfriend in her disregard for who heard things that should be said in private.

"Well," Hatsuharu said, moving his hand to fall around Rin's waist, "I think we'd better be off now. Things to do."

Everyone but Momiji bids them goodbye, as they disappeared into the late-night shoppers crowd of the department store. Machi glanced over at the blonde boy with a slight curiosity. It was unusual for him to be quiet for so many consecutive minutes. In fact, she didn't think he'd said anything since Hatsuharu had pointed out how dissimilar she was to Tohru.

Machi observed the expression on his usually so cheerful face. He looked deep in thought, as if something was preying on his mind. In his eyes, there was a sense of something Machi wasn't quite sure she could identify and put a name to. The only word that came to mind was… disorientation? Yet she couldn't see what had happened in the past few minutes that would have sent him off kilter.  
"Look, you," Hiro interrupted both her and Momiji's thoughts, "If you haven't got anywhere else planned, me and Kisa will just go home."

"Oh," Momiji said, "Oh, well, see you soon, then." He waved, but it seemed rather limp.

Hiro and Kisa left then, with Hiro looking most displeased, but that was nothing new.

"Are you… okay?" Machi asked after a moment of silence fell between them.

"Hmm?" It was like he had forgotten that he wasn't alone, "Oh, sorry. I'm fine. Here, let me walk you home."

This time, she didn't refuse.

***

It was a good ten minutes into the walk to Machi's apartment block before either of them said anything.

"I'm sorry, Machi." He said, "I'm being rude."

"No." She denied immediately. She, more than most people, understood what it was to need time alone with your own thoughts. "It's fine."

"No, it's not." He said. He took her hand. She barely noticed. It had become their custom for whenever they walked side by side. There was nothing in it. An affirmation of their friendship, if that.

"I was just… stuck thinking about what Haru said, about how different you are from Tohru."

"Oh?" She said, staring ahead as they walked.

"Mm. He's right. You're very different people. And that's… that's good, right? Because she's Tohru, and you're Machi, right?" He laughed lightly. "And it's okay if I like you both, if I like you for different reasons." She was sure he was thinking out loud, not really considering what she, his audience, would be thinking at his words. This was probably better for him. She didn't know how he would try and understand her thoughts at what he was saying, as she couldn't comprehend them herself. She wasn't sure she even knew what he was saying. That up until now, he had been trying to make her into a replacement Tohru? Or simply that Tohru was the ideal that he held in his mind, and measured everyone else in his life up to? Either way, she could only assume she'd done a poor job in his eyes. After all, this Tohru Honda girl seemed to have a way with people that would forever be miles out of her weak and slightly pitiful grasp.

No, there was no way she could be it for anyone. She could never even begin to fill the shoes of Tohru Honda.


	4. Chapter 4

**Another part where I still feel things haven't properly got started yet. It's still at the build-up stage which may not be very interesting to read. I'm really sorry :( If I planned better in advanced, I might have worked out a way to inject intrigue into every single chapter, but there we go XD I'm still adoring writing this fic. I love writing Momiji, he's such a sincere and happy character. Machi worries me though. I never know if my characterization of her is okay, or if it's way off. Anyway, I hope anyone reading this (if people are reading, hey there! XD) enjoys it! I'm pretty sure I'm going to see this through to the end, whether other people are into the Machi/Momiji thing or not. I like them, and as the old saying goes, write the stories that you yourself would want to read (I've paraphrased that, btw :P). But even if this story entertains a single other person, that makes me happy :) Okay, thanks guys!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Fruits Basket yet... or ever.**

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The flowers dropped from her hands, into the crystal vase on top of the coffee table in her apartment. She pushed a few stems, making them form a neater bunch. She stepped back to admire her handiwork. It looked good. The colour of the yellow flowers, sent by courier from Yuki, seemed to give the whole surrounding area a brighter, more homely look. In fact, Machi's apartment as a whole looked far more homely than she could remember ever seeing it. All of the things, usually left forming layers on the floor, were in their correct places. The books were on shelves. Her few ornaments were on the window-sill. Even her bed was made, with the sheet tucked under the mattress with barely a crease in it.

She had forced herself out of bed that cold morning, before it had even been light, to start what she had been calling mentally 'the big clear up'. A sensible person would have lightened the workload by stretching the whole process out over a few days, but Machi hadn't been sure that that was a good idea. She hadn't trusted herself to not just make a mess again in that space of time.

The cause of this only-just-finished-in-time clear up mission was the impending visit of Yuki. It would be his first visit since his departure, and she refused to let him see that, in fact, she hadn't changed at all. She _wanted _to have been changed for the better by his influence, to have been able to stop her silly aversion to anything perfect, but she just couldn't do it. Even when he had still been close at hand, even when she had been able to see him every day, although perhaps she had been calmed slightly by it, by his acceptance of her, even with all her imperfections, it still hadn't been enough to stop the urges altogether. The prospect that she may never be able to stop had haunted her on more than one occasion.

She had seated herself, slightly nervous, on the end of her small sofa. She hadn't seen it clear of absolutely all of the pieces of junk that usually resided on it since her parents had bought it for her from an upmarket department store when she had first moved into her apartment.

There was only ten minutes to go, if the clock hung on the wall directly in front of her was correct, which she couldn't vouch for. It'd been known to let her down before. Her fingers fiddled with the hem of her knee-length skirt as she sat. She tried to tell herself how stupid it was to be nervous, but she hadn't seen him for more than a month. He had still sounded exactly the same on the phone, but maybe he had changed in ways that she hadn't detected by their solely verbal contact. Part of her hoped that he hadn't changed at all. That way, she didn't need to feel so bad at her lack of progress.

Five minutes. There was a ringing, but not of the doorbell. Her phone, which was now on the hook, meaning that for the first time in a long while, she didn't need to root around for it. She considered ignoring it, she hardly wanted to be on the phone when Yuki arrived, forcing him to wait on her doorstep while she tried to politely get rid of the person on the other end, something that she was not assertive enough to do quickly. Still, after the fifth ring, she gave in, and picked it up.

"Machi?" She knew the voice immediately. Her heart didn't know whether to rise because of the sound of it, or sink at the fact that he was calling when he was meant to be there, at her apartment, in the flesh.

"Yuki?" She said, aware her voice was quieter than usual.

"Machi, I'm… I'm really sorry, but today-"

"Don't worry about it." She cut him off immediately. She wasn't entirely sure with herself why she didn't want to hear his apologies. Part of her felt stupid for building her hopes so high, even if Yuki was normally very reliable. In any case, she hardly needed three guesses to know what he was going to say. He wasn't coming after all.

He laughed at the other end, and she felt herself irked by this slight insensitivity.

"You don't even know what I'm going to say yet," He said. He certainly didn't sound especially regretful, "All it is, I can't make it down there today."

"That's fine." She said quickly.

"No, it's not. I was really looking forward to it."

Her immediate response was going to be 'Me too' but she didn't allow the words to pass her lips. Her eyes were on her cleaned apartment, the one she had been up since before daybreak tidying. She felt completely stupid. If only she hadn't put in any effort, it wouldn't be so bad that he wasn't coming.

"If this thing today was avoidable, I would give it a miss without a second thought, but it's the surprise birthday party of the guy I sit with in most lectures. He's a second year, so he's helped me out a lot, and it wouldn't feel right to not be there for his party."

"No, you should go. Don't worry about it." Her mouth seemed to be giving false platitudes without her brain really registering. She was disgusted with herself to feel a hotness that was building up in the back of her eyes. If she cried, Yuki would hear without a doubt, and then he'd feel awful, thinking it was all his fault, and he'd come and spend the day with her just because of how guilty he felt. She would never forgive herself if she became that pitiful.

"I'm so glad you're okay with this. I know it's awful of me to do this, on basically no notice, but I didn't know until late last night, and I thought you'd still be in bed, so I couldn't call then, and this morning, I assumed you'd be staying in bed until late. I bet you're having to study hard at the moment, so I didn't want you to lose rest-time, and-"

"Yuki, I'm sorry, I've got to go." Machi's throat was growing thick and painful. She couldn't listen to it anymore. She was sure she never used to get so _emotional _before she met Yuki.

"What? Oh, well, okay." He seemed taken aback with her abruptness. She was slightly, too. "Well, I'll call you this evening, then?"

"Okay." She said, hoping there was no traces of anything in her voice that might give away the salty tears in her eyes.

"Well, talk soon then. I lo-"

She put the phone down, and sank to her knees. She dropped her face into her palms, where it gifted them with warm salty liquid. What was wrong with her? She hadn't even realised how much she had been hoping on this visit, on this chance to see him again. It felt like it was possible he had all been a dream, just a figment of her lonely imagination, and had never existed at all. She'd been hoping on seeing him again dispelling all such silly thoughts.

She allowed herself only a moment of crouching with pitiful tears leaking out of her eyes. Any more and she didn't trust herself she'd be able to get up out of that position. As she stood, her knees stiff even after only a couple of minutes of stillness, she felt a sudden adrenaline rise up in her. It was a familiar angry feeling. It wasn't Yuki she was angry at. If she was honest with herself, it was more a shared anger directed at both herself and the rest of the world. Suddenly everything around her was just too orderly. She couldn't consider it nice and neat, as she had been minutes before. It was now simply mocking, stark, perfect. They were her things. She wasn't perfect, the world was far from perfect, so why were they?

She eyed the entire room at large, but it was the vase of flowers resting, looking like spring itself, on her coffee table that her eyes kept coming back to. They were beautiful, even though Machi had never been a great fan of flowers, thinking them wasteful. Still, that had been before she had been bought a bouquet by her genuinely adoring boyfriend. She knew Yuki. It wouldn't have been a consolation gift because he couldn't come. He had bought them for her because he thought she would like them. And she did. She did like them. But another part of her, the part that seemed to be taking the reins of her mind wanted her to rip them out of the vase. Scatter them onto the floor. Have the water, that had been their lifeblood, soak into her carpet.

But she couldn't. Her mother had always said there was something _wrong_ with her, but even that wouldn't stretch as far as destroying something from Yuki himself. Yuki, the only person who had ever truly accepted her, erratic and slightly crazy behaviour and everything. She wouldn't be able to sleep that night if she destroyed his thoughtful gift now. Her feet, that so longed to go towards the coffee table, were dragged by pure strength of will, across her entire apartment, and out of her front door. She closed it with a satisfying slam behind her. Almost at once, as the air-conditioning of the hallway touched her skin, she felt more relaxed. The urge was passing without any damage done. Even so, she chose against going back into her apartment. A walk seemed in order, to collect her thoughts, and truly restore order in her mind. Not to mention to rein in emotions that were still new to her.

The city around her seemed to blur as she walked. She wasn't taking in her surroundings. She didn't know where she was going. Once she had passed through the entirety of the neighbourhood that she knew, she didn't stop walking. Her mind was still on Yuki, still berating her for being so pathetic about it. He had cancelled one time. It wasn't the end of the world. He would come some other time, sometime that was more convenient for him.

"Excuse me?" A man's voice said suddenly, and she looked up with a jolt. She took a moment to remember that in fact she was not in an invisibility bubble, and the rest of the passing world could indeed see her.

"This is a dead end road." He informed her. "So unless you're wanting to come into the Sohma estate, there's nothing further the way you're walking."

She took a step back at his stern words. Taking the man in, the first thing she noticed was that he was rather intimidating from his height and tone of voice. The second thing was his white coat, a stereotypical symbol of a doctor, or scientist.

"Sohma estate?" She repeated after him. It couldn't be. Sohma wasn't a common name, but it wasn't unique. But… from what Yuki had told her, the Sohmas were a rich and prestigious family. Chances were, they probably did have an estate of some kind.

The man was glaring at her, and she felt herself shrink slightly. She didn't even know what she was saying when she opened her mouth.

"Does Sohma Momiji live here?"

He seemed taken aback, obviously expecting to be told that she had no business there, and that she would be going on her way.

"Momiji? You know him?"

"I-I… Yes."

"Would you like me to show you the way to his house?" He asked. She hadn't expected an offer like that from the man who hardly seemed friendly.

"Um… yes." She had no idea what she was doing. Perhaps she was still lucid from her breakdown earlier. Any sensible person would have denied having an acquaintance with any Sohma, and moved on.

"It's not far from the entrance." He said, as the gate of the impressive estate opened. "Come with me."

Machi followed his tall frame, making sure to keep behind, so as to deflect either of them feeling obliged to make conversation, which could only result in awkward and difficult to answer questions.

The man's assessment of Momiji's house being 'not far' from the entrance was relative. Machi hadn't been expecting the Sohma estate to be so _vast._

"Here it is." He said eventually, turning to her. "Ask Momiji to escort you out when you leave, or you might be asked questions by some of the security at the gate." With that, he left her, standing in the street, unsure of what the best course of action would be.

"Machi?!" A voice called from the direction of Momiji's home, and she recognized it immediately. "Oh, wow, Machi, it really is you!" He bounded over to her in seconds, taking both her hands in his and pulling them up and down in an excited dancing motion.

"I'm sorry to come to unexpectedly." She said, inclining her head slightly in a sentiment of out-of-place formality.

"Don't be!" He laughed, "I'm so happy! I never thought you'd come all the way over here to see me! I didn't even know you'd been to the Sohma estate before! Did Yuki bring you?"

She shook her head, remembering regretfully that she informed Momiji about Yuki's upcoming visit days before. She was sure that he had picked up on her excitement then.

"Oh, I wondered, I mean, when I saw you with Ha'ri, I wondered where Yuki was. Surely he wasn't rude enough to tell you to make your own way here? If he's visiting, he should spend every minute he can with you." He beamed at her innocently.

"Yuki's not here." She said simply, "He couldn't make it in the end."

His faced drooped slightly at this.

"Oh. Oh, I'm sorry, I just… Is Machi sad?"

She looked away from him as she shook her head.

"It doesn't matter."

He didn't say anything else, instead opting to take her hand, and pull her into his house. It was large, in slight disarray, and everything seemed to be decorated and furnished with Momiji's tastes in mind. The sofas in the living room that the pair went into had a fabric candy-stripe covering, and had over-stuffed cushions shaped like hearts, stars, and penny candy in bright colours scattered on them. Machi wondered momentarily if his parents minded living somewhere that was so dictated by what their son liked. She couldn't resist smiling slightly at the thought of his parents. She could just imagine the kind of people they would be. A playful father, who would be proud of his son no matter what he chose to do in life, and a doting mother who loved her son above everything else, embracing both the good and bad in him. She was going to ask him if his parents would be okay with her intruding in their house, but he pulled her down on a sofa next to him with a bump, stopping her.

"Ah, Momiji-kun!" A woman wearing a black and white maid's dress popped her head into the living room. "You've got company? Do you want me to bring refreshments?"

He nodded.

"Thanks!" He called cheerfully after her.

"Y-you have staff?" Machi asked, still staring in slight shock at the door. She had been underestimating the wealth of the Sohma's, it seemed.

"A few." He said modestly, "That was Mizuki-chan. She's lovely. She's been working in the Sohma family since she was eighteen. Her mother used to be one of the family's head's favourites."

"Oh." Machi said weakly. She wasn't sure what an appropriate response to that was. She was saved from needing one, however, by the reappearance of the maid, this time with a couple of silver serving platters overladened with cakes decorated in unnatural shades of pink, blue, yellow, green and purple. A second maid followed this one, with a couple of plastic pink cups, and a pitcher of pink lemonade. The pair then bowed themselves out of the room, leaving Machi looking slightly agog in their wake.

Momiji picked up a couple of cakes, a blue iced one which he handed to her, and a pink one for himself. She nibbled politely on the side of it, wondering just how she had found herself in this position, sharing confectionary with Momiji in his house on the impressive Sohma estate.

"So what happened?" Momiji asked.

"With what?" She knew exactly what he was referring to, but wanted to put off having to say anything about it for as long as possible.

"With Yuki. You said he was coming over today?"

"He just… couldn't make it. Something came up."

"Must have been pretty important. There's not much that can stand in between you and the person you love best in the world."

"It was a birthday party. For one of his friends at college." She said, aware that there was bitterness in her voice that she didn't even know she felt. The look on Momiji's face as she said this showed that he hardly thought this was a good enough excuse not to come.

"Oh." He said thoughtfully, "Well, I guess… his friend might have been hurt if he didn't go."  
"That's what he said. This friend has helped him settle in a lot, apparently, so he should go."

Momiji nodded.

"Still… I don't know I would have. I mean, it's been months since he last saw you, right? If I was him, I would be so excited to see you, I wouldn't let anything stand in my way."He smiled at her, obviously thinking he was being reassuring and complimentary, but she couldn't help a rush of suppressed anger flow through her.

"Well… he can come anytime. It doesn't matter. He had to go to this party today."

"Hmm. I still don't know he did the right thing though, keeping you waiting for his visit."  
"I'm not!" She denied immediately, placing her half-eaten cake down on the table in front of them, "I'm not waiting for him. He can come whenever he's got time, and if he hasn't… it doesn't matter."

"It does matter. Your feelings matter, don't they? And I can see he's hurt them by cancelling today. People who love each other shouldn't do that."

She was on her feet before she knew what she was doing.

"He hasn't hurt me!" She found herself denying in a voice louder than she had anticipated, "It'd be… ridiculous to get upset just because he cancelled one time. I'm not upset about it."

"You are." Momiji said in a calm voice, just watching her.

She could feel an embarrassing wetness on her cheeks. Why was it that she kept crying in front of this boy? How could he make her feel emotions that she usually managed to tuck away from view, until she was alone?

"I've got to go now." She said, turning away, "T-thanks for… the cakes." She moved to exit the way that she had come in only a short time before, but was prevented by a sudden pressure on her wrist. She glanced back to see that Momiji was close to her, his eyes firmly on her. There was a gentleness coupled with determination in them.

"I didn't mean to make you cry." He said quietly, "I'm sorry. I was rude to you, and you're right. I don't know about you and Yuki. I guess I was just trying to push how I'd feel onto you and… that's not fair. I'm sorry, okay? Please, I still want to be friends. I don't want you to not like me anymore."

Suddenly, before she had a chance to move away from him, his arms formed a hold around her neck, as he pulled her into his collarbone, the fabric of his rather feminine baby pink shirt tickling her nose. He hold her for only a moment, then released her, taking a step back.

"Are we still friends?" He asked cautiously.

She nodded numbly, feeling bad for the guilt she had made him feel. She'd been feeling bad long before she had arrived at his home. It wasn't his fault there were tear marks staining her cheeks.

"Hey, do you know what the best thing to do is when you're feeling a bit down?"

"Eat sweet things?" She guessed, raising a limp smile at him. She didn't know nearly as much about him as he seemed to about her, but some things were very predictable in him. He loved anything with plenty of sugar added.

He laughed, but shook his head.

"Sweet things are good, but cavities will just make you feel worse. No, what we need is anime!"

"Anime?" She repeated.

"Uh-huh, something good… like," He rushed over towards the television in the corner, and opened the cabinet beside it, pulling out a DVD box, one with a cover that instantly made her smile.

"You've got the latest Mogeta episodes?" She asked, finding herself heading back towards the sofa, and sitting down. After all, she had been wanting to see them for a while now, but her mother always scolded her for being frivolous if she spent her monthly allowance on things like anime.

"Yup. I haven't watched them yet, so let's watch together, okay?"

She nodded, sitting back and waiting for him to set it up. As the familiar theme tune started, he came and sat beside her, so close that the side of his leg was in full contact with hers. From anyone else, this would have alarmed her, but she was long used to how over affectionate Momiji was, and thought little of it, even as he took her hand and squeezed it.

"Let's stay friends always, okay?" He asked quietly, as Mogeta and Ari ran away from an exploding tin can on screen.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, I'm sorry about how long it's taken me to update. Last update was August apparently. That's total fail on my part. Won't happen again XD Thanks for the reviews, guys, the prodding for me to continue. You guys are pure win. & don't worry, I don't have any intention of giving up this story, I really enjoy writing it, and as much as I ship Yuki/Machi, I simply adore Momiji's character, and I think Machi could balance him beautifully. So yup, without further ado, I hope you enjoy this chapter, I think this is pretty much where things _really_ start to get going. (Incidentally, by my brief outline I drew up, this is approximately the half way through mark.)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't reallllyyy own Fruits Basket. I just mess with it.**

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Machi sighed, as she followed her familiar steps through the school gate and into the building. She didn't know if she was justified in feeling as depressed as she did. After all, nobody had died. In fact, when it came down to it, nothing had even happened. Sure, Yuki hadn't been able to make it, he had put something else first, but that was okay. Just because you date someone doesn't mean you have to be the centre of their world, after all, does it? She wasn't a child. She didn't believe in storybook princes, and if that was what she had somehow built Yuki up to being in her head, then… she had just been insulting him.

"Ah," She wasn't watching where she was walking, and she stepped into a solid body. "Momiji-kun, I'm sorry."

"Huh?" He barely seemed to have registered what had happened. His whole appearance in fact seemed to be in slight disarray. His shirt buttons weren't done up properly, his collar was creased, and his hair didn't look like it had made contact with a comb that morning. "Oh, Machi, don't worry."

"Are you… are you okay?" She asked slowly, not really believing it to be her business, but he was usually all up for sharing feelings.

"I'm… fine." He was looking at her, but his gaze was somewhere else, as if he was deep in thought in his own mind. When he didn't say anything else, Machi thought it better to cut off the awkward silence that was growing.

"Oh, um, okay. Sorry again then, I guess." She moved past him, he was still stood in exactly the same position, "I'll see you in class."

He didn't respond.

As Machi made her way to her first class of the day, her mind had strayed from Yuki. She was going over the events of a couple of days before in her mind. Had she done something when she had intruded into Momiji's home? Sure, she had been rude by getting up to leave so soon, but he had called her back, and they had been fine. When she had left, he had been smiling as cheerfully as ever, inviting her to come over whenever she felt like it in the future.

Machi made her way to her desk, staring absently at the empty space in front of her, Momiji's seat. Maybe she was valuing herself too much. He had a life outside of school, council, and her, after all. He probably had hundreds of people in his life, any of whom could have been the cause of this sudden bout of… sadness didn't seem the right word. He didn't seem to have gained an emotion like that, it was more as if he had lost something… animation, perhaps? A love of life? She didn't know, but maybe it was not her place to pry.

The bell rang, signalling the start of lesson. The seat in front of her remained empty as the teacher began the class.

She was suddenly nudged in the back by the person sitting behind her. She was going to ignore it, and carry on pretending to pay attention to the teacher, when a screwed up piece of paper landed on her desk. She cautiously ironed out the creases.

_Do you know what happened to Momiji? I saw him come in today, so where is he now? – Haru_

She looked around to spy the black and white haired boy, who was staring slightly dazedly at her.

She took out her pen, and discreetly scribbled:

_I saw him, too. He seemed down. Maybe he needed some time by himself._

She wasn't practiced at passing notes in class, but Hatusuharu was only a couple of desks away from her, and the girl nearest to her seemed only too happy to have a reason to be in contact with Hatsuharu Sohma.

He cocked an eyebrow when he read her reply, shrugging it off. It seemed good enough for him. So why was she still worrying? Even if there was something wrong with Momiji, and she had no proof of that in any case, why did it have anything to do with her? When did she become so _nosy_?

The class seemed to trickle by at a snail's pace. Was that clock on the wall even working? She tried to take notes, but her mind wasn't in it. She knew that when it came time to review them, they'd be an indecipherable mystery to her.

When the bell finally rang, signalling the beginning of a half-hour break, Machi put her things together, lost in thought. Her mind was telling her to just leave Momiji alone. He'd come to her if he wanted to, after all. Something else though, she wasn't even sure what it was, was telling her to go looking for him.

"Hey," Hatsuharu was suddenly beside her, she hadn't seen him approach. "You know what's getting to Momiji? I thought he didn't seem himself, didn't think he'd do a bunk though."

"I-I don't know, he didn't say." Even though she had determined Hatsuharu to be mainly kind, if she was honest, he still intimidated her slightly. Maybe it was how he always seemed on a different wave-length to herself.

"Hmm. Hope he doesn't do anything stupid." With that, he walked off, leaving her to her own thoughts.

As Machi picked up her bag, and made her way slowly out of the classroom, she couldn't budge what the black and white haired Sohma had just said. 'Something stupid'? What did that even mean? This was Momiji, he surely wouldn't do anything to harm himself… he was so happy go lucky after all, and surely there was nothing in his life _that… _She stopped mid-thought. How did she know what was going on in Momiji's life? After all, she had always assumed, before she'd gotten to know Yuki, that because of his prestigious name, good looks, and obvious wealth, that his life would be perfect.

Machi stopped suddenly in the busy corridor, and turned on her heel 180 degrees, bumping into a tall and cross looking boy in the process.

"Watch it." He complained, but she ignored him. This wasn't like her, not at all, but the irrational part of her mind was telling her… find him. Talk to him. He'd done the comforting enough times, maybe it was her turn.

Her feet took control, her mind was buzzing too much for thinking. This was beyond her… making someone feel better wasn't something she was usually required to do, it was out of her comfort zone.

She went on autopilot to the disused geography classroom. It seemed the most obvious place, after all, and she had no choice but to work on the assumption that he hadn't left school grounds. He had told her himself that it was where he went when he wanted to be alone.

"Momiji-kun?" She asked gently, opening the door just a crack. A figure, sat hunched up on one of the desks, swivelled around immediately, looking shocked.

"Uh, Momiji-kun, is it okay if I… come in?"

His face, initially strained by the sudden intrusion, softened on discovering her identity. He nodded.

"Sure."

She closed the door as quietly as she could behind her, as she went over to sit on the desk adjacent to his.

He watched her as she sat down, his eyes intent. They had lost the cold, glazed appearance of when she had seen him earlier. He was Momiji again. She couldn't miss the redness around his eyes, or the crusty tear tracks staining his cheeks, however.

"You weren't in class." She said softly. It seemed a good a place as any other to start.

"I had something to think about. I didn't miss anything important, did I?"

She shook her head, even though she wasn't sure. If there had been something important, she had missed it too, so they were in the same boat.

"Hatsuharu-san was worried, too."

"Too?" He repeated, a small, tired smile emerging on his lips, "Was Machi worried?"

It would have been silly to deny it, after she had so obviously come looking for him to check on him, so she simply nodded.

"I didn't mean to worry anyone. And it's nothing, really."

"I… I don't know I'll be any help, but I want to listen, if you want to tell me. Only if you want to… you don't have to. I know I'm probably the last person-"

"No." He interrupted her, "I don't mind telling you. Then you can tell me what a dummkopf I'm being, getting so worked up."

She waited, watching him closely. She doubted that it was something small. It seemed to her that there'd need to be a problem as big as a train to knock Momiji's perpetual happiness off stride.

"It's… I got a call yesterday evening." His voice stumbled just on this. "It was Kyo."

"The orange haired Sohma?" Machi asked. Momiji nodded briefly,

"He… he was at the hospital with Tohru."

Tohru was in hospital again? It had only been a couple of months since she had sustained a fairly serious head wound. The idea occurred to her in a flash. The word around the school at the time of the first incident had been that Kyo Sohma was somehow responsible, so…

"Did he… did he hurt her?" Machi asked cautiously.

Momiji stared at her blankly for a moment, then seemed to understand her words.

"Wha-? Oh, no, no, not at all. No. Kyo… I don't like him. I can't like him, not anymore, but I know he'd never harm Tohru. He really," Momiji stopped and took a breath, "He really loves her, you know? I… I love her, but so does he. He might even love her more. He always got to spend more time with her, I guess."

"So what happened?" Machi asked, slightly embarrassed to have just accused someone she'd never even spoken to of domestic violence.

"She just fell. Tohru's like that, you know. She's a little clumsy, but in a cute way," His face glowed at the mere thought. "She fell, and she broke her ankle."

"Oh," At least it wasn't anything life threatening, "So that's it… you're just very worried about her? I know it doesn't help, but you don't need to be, I'm sure she'll be better in no time."

He smiled wistfully,

"She'll be fine. I know that. It's just… when Kyo called, I asked if I should go there, help look after her. He's really busy with his dojo, so can't make sure she's okay during the day. I thought I'd take a couple of weeks off school, and…" He trailed off. Machi sensed they'd got to the heart of the matter.

"What did he say?"

"He said… I wasn't needed." A stray tear leaked out of his eye, and his brushed it back in an instant, "They… Tohru doesn't need me. She's got Kyo, so she doesn't need me."

Machi didn't know what to say. She doubted there was anything that wouldn't sound mass-produced and cardboard. She could relate only too well to the utterly crushing feeling of being unnecessary. There was already someone to fill every position, you were just a spare part. Her heart thudded painfully in her chest. Just one glance at his pained expression, and she had the insane urge to hug him. She didn't want him to feel like she had. He deserved so much better than that. He was such a pure and _good_ person.

"P-please, Momiji-kun," She took a breath that was surprisingly shaky, "Please don't give up. I know it must hurt… so much, but somewhere there is someone who will need you and only you. They will… they'll love you more than anyone else in the entire world."

"You think?" He looked her in the eyes, his smile sad. "Maybe… I want to believe that too. But for now, just for a little longer, I want to love Tohru. I know it'll only be a painful love, but… I need to do it, just so I can move on and find that person, who'll love me completely and truly."

Machi nodded slowly, not understanding his logic in holding onto something that was painful, but if it was what he needed, it's what he should do.

"And Machi, too!" Momiji said, suddenly brighter, "I want Machi to be by my side. I want to need her as a friend who I know will help me when I'm hurt." He reached his arm across the gap between their two respective tables, and took her hand firmly in his.

The bell rang suddenly, ruining the comfortable silence that had fallen between them. Machi was jolted back into remembering just where she was. Momiji grinned.

"Let's go, okay?" He said, and she nodded. He wiped his cheeks, the evidence of his tears, with the cuff of his sleeve, before he made to stand, not letting go of her hand.

It happened in a heartbeat, Machi didn't have time to blink. His foot caught on a leg of the desk, and he was sent sprawling, landing right on top of her, pinning her to the top of the desk she was sitting on.

Momiji's brown eyes were wide with shock, both at the fall and the sudden close proximity. Machi couldn't breathe. It seemed surreal. Momiji Sohma, relative of her own devoted boyfriend, was lying on top of her, trapping her under him, his face only a couple of centimetres away from her own. She could feel the warmth of his breath tickling her, and the rapid beat of his heart against her own chest.

There was a moment. A single, fractional, moment, where he didn't move. He didn't push himself off immediately, as was surely the normal reaction, he hesitated for just a second. Machi had no air in her lungs. Why wasn't she pushing him off? Why did she not mind this… warmth?

A moment later, and the heavy, solid weight from his body was taken off of her. He stood back a couple of paces. He smiled and apologized. He sounded sincere, but he wouldn't look her in the eye. She was glad. Eye-contact suddenly seemed like a mortifying and terrifying ordeal.

"Ah… so, we should probably get going. You know what the Chemistry teacher gets like if students are late."

"Yeah." She agree, her voice barely above a whisper.

As they made their way to their next class, Momiji didn't attempt to take her hand once again, and Machi was conscious to keep a just-friends safe distance of two paces between them at all times.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi! It's been a long time, I know. I made some promises I couldn't keep XD This part was meant to be up and ready just a week after the last part. It's been almost three months. I'm really sorry, I kinda suck XD But anyway, as a small way of making up for it, this part is looong. Is that even a good thing...? I found it really hard to write for some reason. I guess because Machi's the main focus, and I find her character one of the single most difficult to write out of all of my fandoms. So, apologies and bad excuses aside, I hope you enjoy this part, and hope to see you again for part seven which WILL be posted soon (see you Christmas 2010 then, yeah? XD). Next part, there's gonna be more Momiji, because I miss writing him. Thank you to absolutely everyone reading and reviewing this fic. You're all way too nice to such a unreliable writer :P**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Fruits Basket. If I did, my editor would have fired me for never meeting a single deadline.**

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"Kuragi!" Naohito yelled the moment she entered the council room. She looked up slightly startled, awoken from her dazed state.  
"Sohma, where is he?" He demanded, as if she would have insider knowledge. As it was, she was none the wiser than he was.

Momiji had been absent from school for four days. It had happened without prior warning. In fact, his spirits seemed to have raised considerably after he had bared out his worries about Tohru in the Geography classroom, and they had… she refused to let her mind cast back to _that_. He had just tripped, that was all. An everyday occurrence with no other meaning.

"He's sick _again_?" Grumbled Naohito, "It's all very well for him to not take his position on the council seriously, but as the president, I get the blame if things aren't being run efficiently and correctly."

"I'm sure he'll be back as soon as he's better…"

"That's not good enough! Do you even know how behind on paperwork we are? I didn't think it was possible to have an even less suited group of people to run the school council than we had last year, but obviously-"

"I'll go and ask Hatsuharu Sohma, he might know more about when Momiji will be back." Machi cut him off slightly desperately. She did not want to think about last year's council. That particular wound was still too raw.

"Hm." He grunted, and turned on his heel, heading back towards his desk. Machi took this as granting her leave to go and find the black and white haired Sohma.

It didn't take long. Although school had been dismissed a few minutes ago, Hatsuharu was still in the room of his last class, surrounded by a gaggle of girls, some of whom, if Machi wasn't mistaken, had transferred their obsessive affections from Yuki onto his younger relative.

"Uh, Sohma-san?" Machi asked tentatively, trying to get his attention. The girls audibly hissed at seeing her, as if she were some kind of pantomime villain. It was true that since she had stolen their 'prince', and then made close friends with another Sohma boy, her already lacking popularity had dropped right through the floor.

"Machi." Hatsuharu greeted, "What is it? If we… do anything, I must warn you, Yuki was my first love, so it'd make things awkward."

Many of the girls looked utterly appalled.

"Uh, no," Machi said quickly, reddening, "I just needed to ask you something."

"Hmm?" He flicked a hand, indicating for his fan club to move out of hearing distance. They grudgingly obliged, throwing dirty looks at Machi over their shoulders, which she attempted to ignore.

"Um, about Momiji…" She started, cautiously. "Do you know if he's any better? It's just that he hasn't been in-"

"I don't know." Hatsuharu returned, "I've been wondering the same thing myself, actually. He seems to have disappeared entirely."

"I'm sure he's just got flu or something, probably nothing serious." Why was she now reassuring him? Hadn't she come for information for herself? In fact, if Naohito hadn't prompted her, how long would it have taken her to take up the initiative herself and come and ask Hatsuharu? Probably not as long as she would have liked to have believed. If she was honest, she was worried.

"Hmm. But flu for someone like Momiji could develop into something serious," He thought out loud, "After all, he has no-one to care for him at home."

"What about his parents?" Admittedly she hadn't met them when she had accidentally visited, but she had assumed they were just busy with work and other commitments.

"No, he doesn't live with his parents." Hatsuharu said thoughtfully, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind me telling you… his mother, she rejected him completely when he was young. He's father could do nothing but support her decision to remove him from the family. He's lived on his own for almost all of his life."

"Oh," Machi was genuinely shocked. He'd been rejected by those people who were meant to love and care for him his whole life, yet there wasn't a single trace of bitterness in him. "So, so he's alone now?"

Hatsuharu shrugged absently.

"I guess. I mean, he's got a couple of servants, but I don't think they'll double as nurses for him."

"Oh." Machi didn't know what to suggest. The thought of Momiji lying at home alone and sick with nobody to keep tabs on if it was getting serious was unnerving her. "Do you… often go and see him?"

"Pretty often." Hatsuharu said, "I was going to go and visit him today, and check he's okay, but my girlfriend is angry at me for… something. So I need to go see her." He said vaguely, moving away from Machi without any pleasantries for ending the conversation. She was left standing where she was, dithering.

If she didn't have much of anything to report back to Naohito, he'd be angry. Was it even worth going back to the council room to be yelled at? Surely it would be better to skip it, but make sure Naohito would be kept happy the next time because Momiji would be present… But she could only do that if she went to his house and checked up on him. No way. She couldn't be so bold.

She trod resigned footsteps out of the classroom and down the hallway, back to the council room. She could think of nothing but the blonde haired boy. What kind of state was he in right now? She'd always assumed he was one of those remarkable people who could bounce back from anything. A bout of flu or other illness holding him away from school for so many days seemed out of character. She wanted to know if he was okay, but could she really go and…?

***

The gates marking the entrance to the Sohma compound looked just as imposing as they had done last time. Both her uncertainty about whether she was doing the right thing in being here, as well as having no idea just _how_ she was meant to get in the exclusive private property was leaving her rooted to the spot. Was this really her place? After all, she and Momiji had become friends at school but that hardly guaranteed that he wouldn't find it, frankly, creepy, that she had come all this way out to check up on him whilst he was sick.

"Um, excuse me?"

Machi's heart jumped in surprise, and she span around to find the source of the small voice.

A beautiful little girl, who couldn't have been more than six or seven, was standing in front of her, a curious look on her face. Blonde ringlets framed her angelic face.

"Do you want to go in? They only let the people who live here in through the front gate."

"Oh… oh, sorry, I should leave then…" Even a little girl had more common sense and logic than she did. The Sohmas were a prestigious family. They would hardly want random commoners from the outside invading their privacy.

"I can show you the secret entrance, if you like?" The little girl offered, "They don't let me in through the gate, so it's the only way I get to play with my friends who live on the inside."

"Oh." If she went in through a secret entrance, that would be trespassing. If she was caught, would the Sohmas call the police? They might. They'd built enough security to keep people out, so they obviously weren't going to be lenient to intruders.

"I don't think I should…" Machi said helplessly, unsure whether to go with the logical part of her brain, or the insistent part that was reminding her that Momiji could be very sick, and nobody was doing anything to help him.

"It'll be fine." The girl gave her a small reassuring smile, "I've never been caught, and I come here all the time. As long as the family head doesn't catch you. She's pretty grumpy, my friend says."

"Oh." Machi said again. She found her feet following the little girl, who lead her back the way she had came, until they reached a hole in the wall, obscured to passers-by by lush bushes.

"Through here." She beckoned. Where the girl had to stoop, Machi had to crawl. As she stood herself up on the other side, it began to dawn on her just _what_ she was doing. Momiji was a lovely person, and she felt honoured that he had befriended her, even if she was often overwhelmed by him. But at the same time, he was so popular, everyone who knew him liked him. Why was she being so conceited, to the point of putting her own safety at risk, in thinking that she was the only one who could make sure his illness wasn't turning into anything sinister?

"Where is it you're going?" The little girl enquired, looking up at Machi with big eyes that looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place them.

"Uh, to a friend's house… Momiji's."

"Momiji?" The name seemed to mean something to her, because her eyes widened considerably, "You know him? Do you want me to show you the way?"

Machi nodded. She hadn't even thought that far ahead in her half-baked plan. The last time, she had had that unfriendly doctor show her the complex route, but she couldn't possibly trust herself to find the way there again.

"Yes… yes, please. If it doesn't put you through any trouble."

The girl giggled as she began to walk.

"You talk so formally." She observed. "Just like that other girl who came to see Momiji a while ago."

Machi had no idea who she was referring to, but chose not to ask. It wasn't her place to pry.

The journey this time seemed to take a considerable less amount of time. The girl had boasted that she had known a shortcut, and she had been right. The few people that they passed en route paid no heed to either of the girls as they went on their way. Machi found her heartbeat wasn't quite as erratic and frightened as it had been originally.

"Here it is!" The girl said triumphantly, indicating to the house, the only thing in Machi's immediate surroundings that was familiar.

"Thank you very much." Machi said, inclining her head towards the little girl in gratitude.

"That's okay, you don't need to thank me. Just tell Momiji that Momo said 'hi', okay?"

Machi nodded as the little girl skipped off.

It was too late to change her mind now. She had come all this way. She approached the door and rang the bell with unexpected boldness.

It took a few minutes before the door was opened by a haggard looking maid.

"Yes?"

"Oh… um, is, is Momiji home?" Machi asked. The woman looked like she hadn't slept in days, but her eyes suddenly brightened at her master's name.

"Yes!" She said enthusiastically, "Are you here to visit the young master?"  
Machi nodded, surprised by the upbeat response.

"So I can leave him in your care for a couple of hours?"

She looked so eager, Machi found herself nodding once again, without really thinking through what was being asked of her.

"Oh… oh thank you so much!" She hurried past Machi, leaving her slightly baffled in her wake. She entered cautiously into Momiji's house, unsure what the correct etiquette was. Should she knock once again and see if anyone else came? But if Momiji was in bed, she didn't want to get him up and into the cold just to greet her. She closed the door carefully after her as she took her shoes off in the hallway.

"M-Momiji-kun?" She called gently, not sure where to start looking. "Momiji?"

She got no response. She went through to the living room, the only room of the house that was familiar to her. It was empty. In fact, the whole house seemed lifeless, as she tiptoed from room to room, wondering if what she was doing was enough for the police to give her a jail term if someone decided to report her.

Eventually, she came to a white-painted door, which she opened just a crack to peer inside. It was a bedroom, the only bedroom she had encountered, supporting Hatsuharu's claims that Momiji lived separately from him parents. Opening the door just a little wider, she saw the bundle on sheets and blankets in the centre of the bed, and a few wisps of tell-tale blonde hair. Judging by the slightly wheezy, but otherwise deep and slow, breathing, he was fast asleep.

Her first instinct was to leave him be. He did have someone to care for him after all. That single maid was obviously kind-hearted, despite her tiredness, and she'd been tending to him. Maybe she should just wait in the living room until that maid came back, so she was sure that Momiji had someone here if he needed anything.

An alarming coughing noise came from the bundle in the bed, breaking the silence. For a few seconds, it sounded like Momiji was struggling to take in air. Machi hurried over to the side of the bed, to be met with his bleary brown eyes blinking up at her, confused for a moment before there was a spark of recognition.

"Ah… um, I'm sorry to intrude like this, Momiji-kun, it's just Sakuragi-san was wondering where you had been, and-" She was cut off by Momiji's hand shooting out from under his covers with shocking speed, grasping her wrist, and tugging her down.

Machi fell onto the mattress, and onto Momiji's outstretched arm.

"M-Momji…" She stuttered, struggling to get up. She was caught in his dazed grasp. He used the arm underneath her to pull her tighter to his chest, into a hug close enough that she could feel just how high his temperature was. She struggled weakly, not wanting to hurt him in the process. For a boy who had only the previous year been a few inches shorter than her, he had a lot of strength now, even in his almost unconscious state.

"Please." Momiji whispered. Her ear was close enough that she could make out his words with perfect clarity.

"Please, Tohru-kun… just for now…" His eyes fluttered closed, as he let sleep wash over him again. Machi was trapped, with confusing and conflicting images of both the boy inches away from her, and her own boyfriend miles away, racing through her mind like a jerky cartoon flipbook.


End file.
